Water-dispersible or water-dissipative sulfopolyesters and polyesteramides containing ether groups and sulfonate groups having a glycol residue and a dicarboxylic acid residue and at least one difunctional comonomer containing a sulfonate group attached to an aromatic nucleus and in the form of a metallic salt are well known to those skilled in the art. In particular, such sulfopolyesters can be dissolved, dispersed or otherwise dissipated in aqueous dispersions, preferably at temperatures of less than about 80° C., and have utility in adhesives, coating materials, films, packaging materials, and other products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,874 issued to Charles Kibler on May 22, 1973 discloses a sulfopolyester having a glycol component or residue, a dicarboxylic acid component or residue and a difunctional sulfomonomer component. One skilled in the art will understand that the term “residue” or “component” as used in the specification and concluding claims, refers to the moiety that is the resulting product of the chemical species in a particular reaction scheme or subsequent formulation or chemical product, regardless of whether the moiety is actually obtained from the chemical species. Thus, for example, an ethylene glycol residue in a polyester refers to one or more —OCH2CH2O— repeat units in the polyester, regardless of whether ethylene glycol is used to prepare the polyester.
Sulfopolyesters of particular interest are those requiring particular clarity in a final formulation or use and/or required to retain a particular clarity for a predetermined amount of time afterwards. In this regard, a particularly useful sulfopolyester has an inherent viscosity of 0.24 to 0.60 dl/g. The sulfopolyester has diacid residues comprising from about 20 to 26 mole percent dimethyl-5-sodiosulfoisophthalate and 74 to 80 mole percent isophthalic acid, based on 100 mole percent dicarboxylic acid, and diol residues comprising from about 10 to 30 mole percent 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol and from about 90 to 70 mole percent diethylene glycol, based on 100 mole percent of the diol. An aqueous dispersion can be made having up to about 35 weight % of the sulfopolyester. However, a problem with such dispersions is that a flocculate or precipitate will form in the aqueous dispersion. In the case where such dispersion is used in the preparation of a hair spray, such flocculate may give the impression that a contaminant is present. It has further been observed that such flocculate may increase the turbidity of the product resulting in clouding of an otherwise clear formulation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sulfopolyester that is water-dispersible or water-dissipative that is suitable for such hair spray formulations having fast drying times that will have reduced flocculate and have an improved clarity of less than about 20 NTU.